Okay team, I'm behind pretty severely here. I shall get to your LJs asap... But here, let's catch up. I've had two weeks back at school, and still scrabbling to catch up after being sick before the holidays, I then had to prepare my classes for pretty much a week without me this past week. So I got through the first week and that was a tough one. They put in a new server at school and it just Didn't. Work. Properly. Old emails were unavailable and new emails were bouncing back all over town and I was trying to arrange twelve billets, a local one-day conference thingy and get ready for a convention.

Well, we got there, billets in place, a Mercy day reflection for about fifty Mercy school students and then the big Catholic Education Convention got under way. A thousand people enrolled at considerable cost, including my Principal and me! And it was like a three-day flight. You sit in a seat, mostly in the Michael Fowler Centre, our prime concert and convention site, maybe for a couple of hours, then you queue up for coffee, sit again, listen to another presentation, queue for lunch, go to a seminar or two, back for coffee... and on and on. Still, it was stimulating, I networked with a heap of people, and got some good ideas. Had lunch with the Archbishop and a couple of nuns one day, so feel we're back on better terms! On the flip side, I was exhausted after being incredibly nice to so many people for so many days! Still, it was great to see quite a few of them, and it was neat to have so many people thrilled to see me!! That was nice. I don't work in a big school, so on a regular basis, I mostly see the same 20 or 30 staff members. To be in a big crowd, with heaps of people I haven't seen for ages milling around, it was refreshing. I got to play the guitar for the Mass, a thousand people, and we sat on the stage! I also had to attend the student dinner to keep an eye on that, as about sixty students attended the Convention from around the country, and we held it at our school. I was the lone teacher there while everyone else went to the Big Dinner at a hotel. *sigh* still, we had fun.

On other fronts, the kitten has been a blast. He's the most inquisitive thing, demanding, determined, curious and lively. We introduced him to the Great Outdoors a couple of weeks ago and he now roams off for up to an hour in neighbouring gardens. I fear for his safety but we have to let him go find out things for himself. We also introduced him to Jack, the rabbit, and they now run and play together on our deck (or under it). The kitten stalks the rabbit, then just as he pounces, the rabbit turns and confronts him. Kitten takes off with rabbit after it, then a moment later, the kitten is chasing the rabbit. It's very funny. No aggression involved to date. I had to pay $80 yesterday because the kitten caught a bumble bee while I was watching him, and it stung or bit him (the vet says they can bite) and after half an hour one foot swelled up to double the size of the other one! I had to get him anti-inflammatory and anti-histamine injections. And boy, did he yell!

What else? I have so many stories I'd like to share but I also still have a ton of work to read up before I teach tomorrow and it's nearly bed time.

Finn was wearing one of Christy's old dresses tonight. He found it when he was clearing up his room, it's a narrow Indian blue muslin dress, sleeveless, and he immediately pulled it on. He wore it through dinner and everything - OMG. He said to Asher, 'I like wearing this, you go to the loo and just lift the dress, go, then pull it down again!' As he undressed to go to bed, he was yelling, 'help, how do you get out of this thing?' and a moment later, in mock shock, 'Hey, OMG, I have a penis!'

Well, I have to go read about Old Testament prophets. Funny, I was out to dinner last night and one parent, whose son goes to school with Finn, said the religion teacher was mad. Why, we asked. Because he said he believes in the devil and doesn't believe in evolution. Well, I said, what's wrong with that? He's a religion teacher. He has to teach that God created the earth and everything in it. She nearly blew a blood vessel. 'But that's wrong!' she exclaimed. 'It's not school policy.' I said I didn't think subject matter was school policy, that evolution was for the science department and that creationism was a valid option, no matter how it quite took place. I said I don't teach evolution. I do teach creation, no matter how that developed. But this can't be in the school syllabus, she spluttered. Of course it is, I countered. It's a Presbyterian school. They have to teach the Bible. Then she tried to tell me that as a Catholic I wouldn't know anything about Presbyterians. I told her I teach about most religions. She changed the topic. Fun night...

Comments

I was under the impression that most Christian religious teachers other than fundamental USA Baptists would happily agree with evolution but say that was the way God worked to create the world. Is that not the case? It sounds as if you are saying otherwise. Just interested!

Yes, there's a kitten. Christy and Finn had grieved long enough for Shyler so we moved on! He's very cool for a kitten.

-I was under the impression that most Christian religious teachers other than fundamental USA Baptists would happily agree with evolution but say that was the way God worked to create the world. Is that not the case? Weeeell, no, I don't think there is universal acceptance of evolution at all. I know all about evolution because my first major subject was Anthropology, but many adults, and many students I teach, hold onto the Creation story, without being 'fundamentalist' Christians. I still teach God created the world and we are made in the image of God. I just don't teach how ;-) I tend to leave discussions about evolution to the Bio teacher!